Potty Training!

Okay, so I realized that I'm a little bit behind in my blogging! I'm not sure why!!! :) So Craig was talking to his mom last night and he made mention that Tyler is now potty trained and I realized that I had yet to blog about this momentous occasion!!! So here it is, Tyler is now potty trained, I think :) You know they really are never completely potty trained until...um, I'm not sure when. I still find my girls dancing and have to tell them, "Go To The Bathroom!!!" Lol! However, Tyler is officially in underwear, night and day!!! We've gone back and forth for several months, actually almost a year with him. We graduated from diapers to pull ups and then would be very consistent for a couple of weeks taking him to the bathroom every couple of hours and hoping he would respond by starting to tell us when he had to go. Or even tell us if he had an accident, but no! He would wet and would walk around in it and would never tell us. So then we would give him a break for a couple of weeks and basically treat the pull-up like a diaper. We never criticized, we kept it all very positive! So every time he went in the toilet we made a very big deal out of it. Then after a little break we would start trying to take him back to the toilet every couple of hours but he just showed no interest. After doing this for probably 8 or 9 months we finally decided just to relax. Give him a break and see what happens. So this time we waited a couple of months. It fell over summer time though when we were traveling quite a bit so it worked nice to not have to find a bathroom constantly for him. About 4 weeks ago we decided that maybe we would try again. He is almost 3 1/2 and we thought that maybe he had a little more maturity (can 3 year old boys be mature???). So we put him in underwear. We still have to remember to take him but now he gives us warnings before he goes to the bathroom. What fun!!! Although sometimes it is a rather short warning, it is still a warning. He does still have the occasional accident, maybe once a week, but he is in underwear full time now. What a very big boy!! The next thing to teach him is how to stand to go to the bathroom instead of sitting :) I'll let Craig work on that!

The Christmas Parade

We were able to go to the Annual Christmas Parade last night. It has been a tradition in our family since as long as I can remember. I remember going to the parade as a little girl and we always had so much fun. We go early to get a good spot to sit and as part of the tradition we eat dinner from one of the restaurants on Main Street. Someone sits on our blanket and saves the spot and the other person goes and gets the food. And we have always thought the more the merrier. So we always invite lots and lots of friends to go to the parade with us. As my sister and I got older we still went to the parade every year as a family. There was one year that I was married living in Idaho and my sister was at school at Ricks and my parents still went to the parade and kept the tradition alive. Since that time my sister and I have both moved back to the area and so we now all go with my parents and our kids. This year was a little sad for me because my parents and my sister weren't able to go. For obvious reasons my parents didn't go but my sister's kids were sick. I was happy that my cousin Christy and her family came and sat with us. We still had a really good time and enjoyed sitting together freezing as we watched the floats go by. Tyler was able to really enjoy the entire parade and sat mesmerized most of the time. The parade was almost 2 hours long so that is an incredible feat for him to sit for that long entertained. Of course Sari's favorite part was the horses, Ashlie had a hard time naming her favorite float. And of course Tyler loved the Polar Express float. Lucky for me it is the season of Santa Claus and so I can now defer all toy buying to Santa's workshop. Every time we enter Target Tyler wants to go straight to the trains. So we've been explaining about how he has to be a good boy and then Santa will bring him a toy for Christmas. So he was so excited to see Santa at the end of the parade last night. Of course I think he thought he was getting his toy there. We always have a good time at the parade and last night was no exception.

The Delayed Update!

Hi Everyone!!! Sorry I have been so slow on updating my blog. I guess I've just been so busy with stuff my blog sort of got neglected, however I didn't realize how neglected until I finally showed my face at church today after 3 weeks and was told numerous times that I needed to update my blog :) Thank you all who inspired me to update! First of all, I'm sure what you all want to know is that my dad is doing very well. He ended up having quintuple bypass (that's 5 bypasses). He is home and getting better every day. He spent about 5 days in ICU which was a bit longer than we anticipated but after moving to a different floor he really started recovering quickly. It has definitely taken a toll on him and on all of us but each day gets a little better. The first few nights he was home I was staying the night with them to help out. He still is having trouble sleeping but from what we hear that is to be expected for a while. He is on a tremendous amount of medications for various things and that is quite the job keeping all of that straight. He takes his medications about 7 times a day and so I was able to type up a sheet for my mom that lists each medication and when to take it so that has helped tremendously. There has been a lot to try to keep up with and to learn throughout this situation but we have felt very blessed.

While I would never want to go through this experience again, I am thankful for the opportunity to grow spiritually. It has amazed me how much I have felt the spirit in my life and I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of me and my family. First of all, I was in awe at the outpouring of love shown to me personally and to my family. Several people who don't even know my dad expressed so many kind words and prayers in his behalf and offered so much of themselves to help. When we found out that my dad was going to need a blood transfusion we spread the word asking for those who were willing to donate in his name. We have heard from several people in different states who donated blood in his name! What a blessing for the blood banks! And that was all before the surgery even took place. As we approached the morning of the surgery I was a nervous wreck. I had prayed as much as I could and there were so many of you also praying but I still had such an uneasy feeling. I just did not have peace. The morning of the surgery just before they took him, my sister and I met my mom and dad in his room. It was just the 4 of us and we were able to have a family prayer together. My dad said it and during that prayer I felt the most wonderful peace come over me and I knew that it was going to be okay. The surgery was 9 hours long and I dreaded it. However I quickly discovered that while I thought about my dad my mind was not consumed with him and there was no longer the dread. It was so amazing to feel the peace and comfort from my Heavenly Father at that time. Since that time it has been a true testimony builder for me to be able to feel my Heavenly Father's love for me. My mom stayed with me the entire time my dad was in ICU and we were able to find so many small blessings through everything. For instance, if you live anywhere near here you know what a challenge parking can be at the hospital. Yet, the entire time my dad was in ICU we went down about every 2 hours to see him. We could only stay just a few minutes and then we had to leave so we made many trips to the hospital every day. Every time we pulled into the main parking lot we would find a spot empty waiting for us without even having to search. Mind you this was multiple times a day. The day he got moved out of ICU was the first time in about 5 days I had to look for a parking spot. What a simple thing that made such a huge impact on our stressed out minds. It was like that with everything. So many little things that made such a huge difference. Even the fact that a few years ago my dad encouraged me to take my Drywall Contractor's State Boards (which I passed) and I am so much more capable to help with my dad's business as he recuperates. What a blessing that I have the knowledge to be able to do that.

Each year as Thanksgiving approaches I find myself thinking of my blessings and I have always known that I was blessed in so many ways, but this year was so different. I found myself being so thankful for just the basic things that really matter. My dad's surgery has really helped me to put things into perspective and to be more appreciative. I am thankful for a Heavenly Father who loves me. I am thankful for a husband who supports me and who so willingly offers his shoulder for me to cry on. I am thankful for my children who step up and help out and are so patient with me as I try to be so many things at once. I am thankful for my mom and dad, they have taught me so much. I am thankful for my sister and the relationship we have. And then, all of our extended family and friends. It has been amazing to feel of your love for our family during this time. My dad and I have had the opportunity to talk a little bit since his surgery and we have been amazed with the number of people that have reached out to us. We never knew how many friends we have.

So, even though life is crazy right now we know we have been blessed. We are holding life together at the seams and so far the thread is holding. Tyler has missed a few preschool days but he doesn't seem overly upset by it. He was able to make it to church today and to the nursery so he seems happy enough. Ashlie is getting ready for her Christmas Dance Recital and I just had her parent teacher conference where she received very good grades. Her and Sari are also getting ready for their Christmas Piano Recital and have both been practicing very hard. Sari has a Pyramid project due this week which will take some work this week but she can do it. She also received very good grades during her conference. Craig has been working and trying to help out around the house since I've been slacking so much. He has become the main house cleaner, laundry doer, and dish washer. As for me, I'm still in school myself. Only two more weeks before finals. I am still handling the bookstore taking over my mom's portion so she can be home with my dad. I also took over a large portion of the drywall so that my dad can recuperate. I skipped out on my primary chorister the past two weeks but finally made it back today which felt so good. As you can see we are having no problem staying busy. This week is also the Christmas Parade which we are looking forward too. In years past we have always had several friends and family with us. Sometimes there are around 30 of us all at the parade together, this year will be a little different without my mom and dad and my sister's family (they are sick). Sometime in the near future I will have to find some time to get my Christmas shopping started and if we are lucky we'll get a tree up :) Life is crazy as ever but I have felt so blessed with this time to put things back into perspective. What a wonderful season!!! I will try to be a little better at blogging, hopefully I can keep up on things a little better now. Thank you all for your concern.

Update on my Dad!

I just wanted to blog a quick update on my dad! He is doing very well. He is still in ICU but is recovering very well. Heavenly Father is hearing the prayers. They took out the breathing tube about an hour ago and he is breathing on his own and doing very well. Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. Keep sending them our way!!!

Pray for My Dad

First of all, I just want to say Thank You all so much to all who have offered your prayers and thoughts. We appreciate it so much and we are so thankful for it. We know that that is the reason we have been able to keep things together and get the things done that have to get done. We know Heavenly Father is blessing our family. My dad will be having quadruple and possibly quintuple bypass surgery tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. Please continue to pray for him and for us. I will try to keep you updated as I make it home to do so.

Biology Presentation

About six weeks ago in my biology class we were assigned a presentation that had to be done. My presentation was on Xenotransplantation (transplanting animal organs into humans). So I've been working for weeks on my project. There was tons of research and then organizing the information and then figuring out how to present all the information on a board. I've been working on it here and there and had it together in my mind just not on the board. My presentation was due this Thursday. I had set a goal to have it completed by this last Monday so that I would have a couple of days to fix anything that wasn't quite right. Well, with the latest developments on my dad I didn't quite finish what I was supposed to. So I stayed up late last night working on it and figured I would get it finished today. We met with the surgeon this morning for my dad's surgery and found out it is going to be on Thursday (the same day my 100 point presentation I've been working on for 6 weeks is due). So I went to talk to my teacher and asked him if I could turn it in early, thinking tomorrow. He says sure, be there at 1:00 today for the lab with your poster (it was currently 11:00 am). So I ran home and managed to glue the last few things down I needed and printed out the works cited page. I did somehow manage to remember to at least take a picture so I could see the final project. I hadn't planned on getting it all done and turned in early but at least now it is done and completely off my plate. Hopefully my grade doesn't suffer from racing through the end.

A Tribute To My Dad!

Well, I don't normally just blog about my feelings and things but today has been an emotional day and as I sat here I just felt like I needed to say a few things. First of all, the reasoning behind the emotional day is because we found out today that my dad has to have open heart surgery. He was sick a couple of weeks ago and in the hospital but we thought he was getting better. Then this last weekend he was taken by ambulance back to the hospital where they admitted him again and have been doing more tests. Today they found several blockages in his arteries and are going to have to do open heart surgery to fix it. For those of you who personally know my dad you know what a lifestyle change this will be for him and for all of us. My dad is the backbone to our family. He just has a way to make everything okay. And it is so hard to see him and know that he needs us to be strong for him right now. So, I thought I would like to just say a few things about why my dad is special to me.
First of all my dad gives great hugs. I can remember so many times in my life that all I needed to make it through was a hug from my dad. My dad is the most selfless and loving person I know. He would give you the shirt off of his back and the last dollar in his wallet if you needed it. My dad is not rich by any means, but I have never wanted in my life. My dad has always worked and found a way to get us what we wanted. I know he has sacrificed a lot in his life for my pleasure, just because he loves me. My dad is very forgiving. That was always the worst part about doing something wrong because I know my dad would be disappointed, but he was always so quick to forgive us. I remember my dad running alongside my bike as he taught me to ride on two wheels and how he so patiently sat in the front seat of the car as he taught me to drive. I'm so thankful for my dad. I have the best dad ever!
If you would each say a prayer for our family this week we would really appreciate it. We could really use the peace and comfort at this time. Thanks for listening (reading) to my ramblings. I stayed up tonight to get some stuff done around the house that needed to be done so I can try to keep things functioning around here. It will be a bit of a challenge at first to juggle things around, I've just become the number one person handling all of my dad's business affairs. Thank goodness I just got a new palm pilot for my birthday to help keep everything straight. So I guess now that I've cried a whole bucket of tears I better get back to work. Thanks for your prayers!

Here are a couple pictures of my dad. One is of him helping Tyler carve his pumpkin just before Halloween. And the other is last year at the Christmas Parade covering up with Ashlie's My Little Pony blanket. We love you Dad!!!

Happy Halloween!

I guess I was so excited about my birthday that I completely forgot to blog about Halloween. My cousin Christy and her family came over and went trick-or-treating with us. And we can't forget to mention our adopted daughter Jaqueline, she's the one with her face painted white. This is the first year in about 4 or 5 that we've gone door to door. We usually go to a Halloween party somewhere with trunk-or-treating so this was kind of fun to do it the "traditional" way. We started the evening off with $5 Little Ceasar's pizzas. Then headed into the costume dressing phase. Tyler refused to wear his Thomas costume but loved the hat. I think the costume was a little too restricting for him. He had so much fun walking up to each door and saying "Trick or Treat". We managed to go to about 40 houses I think, maybe more, and Tyler walked the entire way carrying his own bucket. He refused to let anyone help him even when he was dragging it on the ground because it was so heavy. Ashlie also enjoyed herself, just the normal kid trick-or-treating. Sari was kind of funny and it made me realize how big she is getting, about half way through she decided she was done and would just wait on the curb while we walked up to the house. I think she was a little anxious to get home and read her book she had started that afternoon. Guess I can't blame the kid, new book to read on one hand or candy on the other!!! Funny she picked the book. We had a good time and got lots of candy which should last us quite some time, hopefully!

Happy Birthday to Me!!!!

Well, I know that as an adult it is kind of odd that I love my birthday as much as I do, but I just can't help it!! I have always loved my birthday. I don't know why, maybe because my mom always made such a big deal of our birthdays, always going out of her way to make us feel so special, or maybe it was because everyone always decorated and had parties around my birthday, or maybe it's just because IT'S THE COOLEST DAY EVER!! Whatever the reason, I love my birthday!!! Fall is my most favorite season with the cooler weather, all of the beautiful colors on the trees, and pumpkins!!! I remember growing up my mom would always do Halloween theme parties for me. We would rent scary movies and bob for apples. And my mom always made me a brownie in a round pizza pan, then she would frost it orange and use candy corns to make a jack-o-lantern face. As I got older, the games and movies changed but it was still a fun party all the same. After I got married, somehow Craig has picked up on my enthusiasm and he still goes all out for my birthdays. Half of the fun of my birthday is the annual countdown which usually starts around October 1. For some reason I've always wanted to make a paper chain in orange and black to do the countdown but I have never remembered in time to do it. So this year, the party was just as wonderful! It all started with breakfast in bed from Craig and the girls (Tyler's contribution was sleeping in :)). Craig made his famous pancakes! I went to work at 7am, lots of fun!! I had class at 9, again, lots of fun!! I got back to work at 10:30 and when I walked in I had a beautiful bouquet of flowers (all fall colors) from Craig (picture included). I stood chatting and admiring my flowers for a few minutes then walked to my office and found that my sister had decorated my doorway and my whole desk with streamers and Happy Birthday signs and had a bouquet of balloons waiting for me (picture included). That was very fun!!! I worked til about 12:45 when my dad treated me to McDonalds for my birthday lunch. (On a side note here, I have to give my dad credit that he wanted to go somewhere else because neither of us are particularly fond of McDonalds, but I had to be in class in 15 minutes and so I ended up eating in the car anyways! So thank you Dad, it's the thought that counts!) So off to class I went with a cheeseburger in hand! After class I headed home with my stash of goodies from work only to pull in and notice that the miscellaneous items along the side of the garage had been moved around. I didn't think too much more of it. I came inside, Craig was gone with all of the kids. So, I sat down and started making more Prop 8 phone calls. I got to read for a few minutes and relax which was quite nice. While I was relaxing I got a very fun phone call from my nephew Ezra (he's only 2 so it was with the help of my sister). He sang Happy Birthday to Auntie! Craig told me we were going to dinner so we got the kids all ready and headed out the door. As we were leaving I realized that the cords that normally run in front of the front door for my fish aquarium were no longer there. My wonderful dad had come over during the day (while I was in class) and surprised me by putting in a new outlet on the wall beside my fish aquarium. (The wires came from the garage on the other side of the wall, hence the stuff in the garage being moved). So, I no longer have extension cords running in the walkway. (Thank you, Dad). Off we headed to the Olive Garden for dinner. We met my parents, my sister and her family, my cousin Christy and her family, and our good friends the Wrights, along with our adopted daughter Jaqueline (Sari's friend). We had lots of good food and fun visiting. Craig got me a bike for my birthday (I really wanted one). Sari got me a Willow Tree Angel holding a bushel of grain (for the Fall), Ashlie got me a Willow Tree Angel holding a cat (for Affection), and Tyler got me a new palm pilot. I'm pretty sure Craig had to help him out financially with that one because he doesn't earn an allowance. Along with the rest of my gifts I got a toddler seat for the back of my new bike for Tyler so we can go on rides, a triple plug for my new wall outlet, a beautiful Liz Lemon Swindle picture, and a very fun cupcake stand. And of course I can't forget to mention all of my birthday wishes via email and facebook!!! I don't think I've ever had so many people tell me happy birthday!!! I had lots of fun!!! I've decided that getting older isn't so bad. I think I've learned a few things along the way and I have certainly made lots of friends to share in the fun. Thank you everyone for making my birthday so fun!!!

Carving Pumpkins!!!

Tonight we did our annual pumpkin carving. We were supposed to do it last night but life happened and so it got postponed til tonight. The bad part about doing it tonight was that Craig had a meeting at work so he didn't get to participate. I'm sure he missed watching the kids faces as they attempted to do their own pumpkins but I'm sure he didn't miss the clean up :) Grandma & Papa came over to help and we all had a good time. Sari & Ashlie were able to do most of theirs by themselves so that was fun to watch them figure it all out and draw their own faces on the pumpkins. Tyler of course still needed some assistance but he was so cute. He would get the knife in and then just saw straight up and down for several minutes "carving" his pumpkin. They each designed their own pumpkins. Tyler chose a heart for a nose. After we got them all carved we all went out and got them lit on the porch and stood back to admire.

I got a 94%

For those of you who enjoy hearing me gloat I thought I would spread the word that I got a 94% on my Biology test I took last week. I was a little sad because I thought that I would of done a little better than that, but then I looked at the scores for the entire class and I was quite pleased to see that not only did I get the highest score on this particular test but I also have the highest overall grade in the class with a 96.2%. That made me happy :) Okay, enough gloating, I know I'm a big nerd cause I constantly have my face in my homework but I love learning. It is such a rewarding feeling to learn new stuff that I can share with my friends and family. For instance, today in lab we played CSI COS (COS is the name of the college I go to for those of you not in this area). We studied DNA fingerprinting. Pretty fun stuff to see how they actually can read the DNA!

Thanks to my good friend Amy I have been tagged!!! So my 6th picture in the 6th folder happened to be Ashlie's Dance Recital picture from this last June. So here is my princess Ashlie Ann!





8 Favorite TV Shows
1. It was House until last night there were two girls kissing on it :(
2. The Baby Story (If I'm at someones house with TLC)
3. CSI Miami (Craig does a great impression of Horacio)
4. Eleventh Hour
5. Criminal Minds
6. Judge Judy (It is so hilarious)
That's all I can think of, I really don't watch very much tv.

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Mama Gina's (Now closed and I am so sad)
2. Panera (love the salads)
3. Olive Garden
4. Chili's (Love the shrimp fajitas)
5. Outback Steakhouse (best steamed broccoli ever)
6. Melina's (Mexican food in Blackfoot, Idaho)
7. Arctic Circle (only in Idaho cause they have fry sauce)
8. My mom's kitchen

8 Things that Happened Yesterday
1. Made Prop 8 phone calls
2. Met with Ashlie's teacher
3. Went to class
4. Tyler went to preschool happily
5. Was on hold for over 45 minutes on the phone
6. Went to the church and practiced with the pianist
7. Started the laundry
8. Made my bed

8 Things I'm Looking forward to
1. My birthday
2. Halloween
3. Top of the Line
4. Craft Saturday
5. Maybe Thanksgiving in AZ
6. Christmas
7. Hopefully family coming for New Years
8. bedtime

8 things on my Wish List
1. Prop 8 to pass
2. To be skinny
3. Bike with a seat for Tyler
4. Diamonds (shouldn't that be a standard???)
5. Maid
6. Potty trained son
7. A dog who cleans her own messes
8. My back to quit hurting

8 Friends I'm tagging
1. Tiff
2. Jen - sister
3. Aisha
4. Utah Chris
5. Margaret
6. Jenny
7. Emmylou
8. Becky

Tonight was our ward halloween party. We had lots and lots of fun. Sari dressed up as a doctor and she was the cutest doctor I've ever seen. Ashlie was a vampire princess (she came up with that on her own) and can anyone guess what Tyler was??? I know it is so hard to figure out, of course he was Thomas. If you recall we had a Thomas in our family last Halloween too! In fact, we were able to reuse the same costume, yeah!!! The kids had lots of fun bouncing in the bounce house, doing the cake walk, and running and playing with all of their friends. Then when it was dark everyone opened up the back of their family mobiles and the "Trunk or Treating" began. Jaqueline (our adopted daughter) even got to go with us :) We had a really fun time and hopefully no one wakes up tomorrow morning with a stomach ache from the candy :)

Dance Class!!

This is Ashlie's 4th year of dance and she still enjoys it. Twice a year we have viewing days where we can go and watch her dance and see what all of our money pays for. The rest of the time we aren't supposed to go and watch, so we just drop her off at the door and pick her back up an hour later. So it is nice to see that she really enjoys it and she is learning something. She loves to watch herself in the mirror and we used to wonder why she enjoyed that so much but after you go to "Viewing Week" you understand. She is still taking ballet, tap, and jazz.

The Laundry Room

So, I finally got my vinyl put up in the laundry room. What do you think??? I'm thinking now I need to get some of those way cool holiday lights that have the orange pumpkins that light up and string them around. Any thoughts on where to go from there?

I love Halloween!

So, I decided my flip flops on the back of my van were getting a little old. As fun as they were I was ready for a change. So what better time of year or holiday to change than my birthday??? So of course, I went with little birthday cakes in the descending sizes representing my family! Not!!! Of course I went with little jack-o-lanterns :)!!! Here they are, aren't they so cute. There is an up close shot and then farther away so you can get the whole affect. And for those of you who don't know, the other symbol is none other than the Yamaha symbol since Craig's motorcycle is a Yamaha! We have to make this family mobile a little more masculine for Craig!!!

The School Carnival

The girls had a school carnival a couple of weeks ago. At the carnival they had vendor booths set up so we took our vinyl stuff and set up. It worked out really well because the kids could all go and play at the carnival but they knew right where we were. And I figured out the fewer tickets I gave them the more often they checked in with me :) It was even better because there was a little playground area right beside where we were sitting that was relatively empty so Tyler and Ezra kept walking over to play on the toys. Tyler and Ezra generally are in combat with each other, something about that age, but we happened to snap this picture of the two of them walking to the toys together. I thought it was so sweet I wanted to stick it on here. Unfortunately, we were so busy having fun that we didn't take pictures of any of the other kids, but they all came home very happy and very tired :)

Tyler at the Pumpkin Patch with Grandma & Papa

On Saturday there was a big pumpkin patch in Reedley (about 20 miles away) that had a big train show going. Originally my parents were going to take all 6 grandkids and go but it didn't quite work out. So they ended up taking Tyler and my sister's little boy Ezra. Tyler had so much fun looking at all of the trains and train tracks. Everyone had a great time. Both boys were worn out because when my parents got them all buckled to come home before they left the driveway of the pumpkin patch both boys were already asleep.

Tyler at The Pumpkin Patch

On Friday the little preschool that Tyler goes to had a field trip to the pumpkin patch. He had so much fun. He played in the corn box (sand box filled with corn kernels), they had story time, got to go on a hayride, and then got to pick out a pumpkin. He had lots of fun running crazy and even went through the little maze they had set up. The first picture of the 3 little boys together was during the story time. Tyler's listened very well to the entire story but as soon as he said "The End" Tyler was gone, which happens to be the next picture showing Tyler running back to the corn box.

I'm still here!!!

I know it's been awhile since I've blogged. There are a couple of reasons. First, I am waiting on pictures from my sister so I can blog about our school carnival. Second, I've been going crazy with my school. I had two tests (one the final) and an oral presentation all due in my speech class this week. Third, I've discovered Facebook. So you can all go look me up on Facebook :) I am still alive, and I will resume my normal usage of blogger as soon as my tests are over :)